5 minutes into the session and Schumacher is on track and looking to improve despite a slight spin down at turn 7 the world champion proceeds to improve his best time so far with a lap of 1 minute 14.664 seconds before returning back to the pitlane for some set-up changes. It looks unlikely that Barrichello will be on track in this session as he sits on the pitwall out of his racing overalls. Ferrari’s tyre analysis programme will be hampered a little by his lack of running. But Rubens although frustrated not to be running is confident that Michael can do a good job, “It is frustrating not to be running,” says Rubens. “But I trust my team mate to do a good job and find the set-up.” Barrichello as yet is still not certain of the cause of his off. Barrichello’s mechanics remain hard at work building him a new chassis from a fresh chassis tub.

Schumacher’s next run would see another improvement on his lap time, dropping the pace down to a 1.14.072 as he starts to threaten the 13’s already. Michael continues to put in the laps but no improvement on his time so far as he works on his own to gather the tyre data the team needs. But the lap time was to improve with about 15 minutes to go Schumacher sets another quickest lap with a 1.13.548.

No further improvement from Michael in the closing stages of the session as he continued to work on his and Barrichello’s benefit. But more worry’s for Williams as Montoya’s engine lets go and it seems their problems are still lingering even at this stage of the season.